MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
All packed up and ready to travel for Thanksgiving? Not so fast - a bomb cyclone is predicted for the West Coast, and a big storm is sweeping across the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains. Nathaniel Minor with Colorado Public Radio reports from Denver.
NATHANIEL MINOR, BYLINE: Manuel Carillo was about as chipper as you could expect someone to be this morning, considering he slept on the floor at the Denver International Airport.
MANUEL CARILLO: It wasn't bad. I've slept on the floor before. It's not bad. I had my little pillow, you know, and it was warm (laughter). So yeah, I had some good dreams.
MINOR: Carillo was trying to get to Seattle to see a friend. He got to the airport late yesterday and spent the night here with more than a thousand other travelers. But then his early morning flight was canceled and a second one, too. Hundreds of other flights here were called off as a major storm rolled over the Rocky Mountains, dumping more than two feet of snow in some places. It's even temporarily shut down busy Interstate 70, the main thoroughfare to Colorado ski resorts. The storm is expected to move northeast across the Plains and toward the Great Lakes. Close to a foot is expected in Sioux City and Minneapolis, with gusts of winds up to 40 miles per hour in some places. It could even touch New England later in the week. Meanwhile, another storm is brewing off the Pacific Coast. That could pelt Oregon and California with rain, snow and winds up to 80 miles per hour. Transportation officials and weather forecasters say it's best to just stay home and wait out these storms. Manuel Carillo is going to give it one more shot to get to Seattle. But he says if that falls through...
CARILLO: Then I'll probably call it. I'll call it quits and just stay here for Thanksgiving, you know?
MINOR: But he wouldn't be alone. Carillo says he'd spend the holiday with his sister in Denver.
For NPR News, I'm Nathaniel Minor. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.